When to migrate accounting data

Migrating to Brightpearl at the end of a tax period will mean all transactions entered in the current tax period are reported via your old accounting system.

US sales tax - When you import your account balances to Brightpearl, future invoices (i.e. entered in your last system but are dated after your last reconciled tax period from your previous system) will not be represented in your next tax report in Brightpearl. Brightpearl produces the Sales tax report based on sales and purchase invoice journals (types SI and PI) and not from imported or manual journals (type JJ). For example, if your tax periods are:

Cash VAT scheme - When you import your account balances, invoices entered into your previous system that are not fully paid will need to be manually generated as Quick Invoices and Bills in Brightpearl in order to generate the correct accounting entries with the correct VAT codes. This is so that when the payment is receipted the VAT is recognized correctly; the VAT return reports only on payments made against invoices (journal type SI and PI) and not imported or manual journals (type JJ).

Standard VAT scheme - Using standard VAT accounting, you pay VAT on your sales whether or not your customer has paid you. By migrating to Brightpearl at the end of a VAT period all transactions entered in the current VAT period are reported via the VAT return on previous accounting system.

When you import your account balances, future invoices (i.e. entered in your last system but are dated after your last reconciled VAT period from your previous system) will not be represented in your next VAT return in Brightpearl. Brightpearl produces the VAT return based on sales and purchase invoice journals (types SI and PI) and not from imported or manual journals (type JJ). For example, if your VAT periods are:

Tax period 1 - Jan to Mar

Tax period 2 - Apr to Jun

There are transactions entered into the previous accounting system and imported into Brightpearl and transactions entered directly into Brightpearl from sales and purchase invoices:

Although the tax for period 2 totals 128.40 only 86.76 will show on your tax report in Brightpearl. INV 4 was entered in the previous system, but falls into period 2, but due to the migration to Brightpearl it will not automatically be included on any tax report. This means you will need to manually account for it when you declare tax.

We recommend that you run a tax report on both your old system and Brightpearl for your next period, to ensure you account for all transactions. Using this example the following would be produced for period 2:

Note: This is not applicable if no transactions are exported from your previous system that are dated after your last tax period.

Importing a chart of accounts

You should decide on your chart of account structure early on as building your chart of accounts with the import will remove all existing accounting entries. If you do not want to lose accounting data you will need to build the chart of accounts manually.

How to import a chart of accounts

You will need all your nominal codes listed in a CSV file using the following columns:

Nominal code (must follow Brightpearl nominal code structure)

Name

Is Bank Account (enter yes or leave blank)

Is Expense Account (enter yes or leave blank)

Tax code (optional, e.g. T20)

Map code (optional. Use this field for the previous nominal code from your old system)

Description (optional text description of the account)

The maximum number of lines you can import is 9999.

The following required codes must be included in the file:

Sales tax accounts

VAT accounts

1200 Inventory

1001 Inventory

1100 Accounts receivable

1100 Debtors control account

2250 Stock in transit

2050 Stock received not invoiced

2060 Deferred COGS

2060 Deferred COGS

2070 Landed costs

2070 Landed costs

2100 Accounts payable

2100 Creditors control account

2200 Sales tax

2201 Purchase tax

2202 Reserved code

2202 VAT liability account

2299 Rounding corrections

2299 Rounding corrections

3200 Retained earnings

3200 Profit and loss

9997 A/R import

9997 A/R import

9998 Suspense account

9998 Suspense account

9999 Mispostings account

9999 Mispostings account

Go to Settings > Data/Import > Import accounts.

Click Import Chart of Accounts.

Browse for the file to import.

Click the Upload Chart of Accounts (CSV) button.

Importing a trial balance (opening balances)

Importing balances on their own won't reset any existing accounting, so you can begin using Brightpearl even before you've completed the migration from another system. However, when you do come to import your opening balances, you will need all of the nominal codes to already exist in Brightpearl unless you are building the chart of accounts at the same time. Remember though that importing a chart of accounts will reset all your existing accounting data, so you may need to add nominal codes manually instead.

When you import your trial balance a single figure is posted for your total accounts receivable (debtors) and another for your total accounts payable (creditors). These figures are the total amount owed, which therefore also includes tax amounts. The figures are not posted into the Debtor Control (1100) and Creditor Control (2100) accounts, as might be expected, because you then need to import your debtors and creditors details to separate the net and tax amounts. Instead these figures are posted to suspense accounts - Opening Debtor balance (9997) and Suspense Account (9998). When you import your accounts receivable (debtors) and accounts payable (creditors) the balances in the suspense accounts are gradually split out into the Debtor/Creditor Control accounts and VAT accounts as well as attaching it to the relevant contact, applying the correct tax code in the process.

How to import a trial balance

Go to Settings > Data/Import > Import accounts.

Click Import Chart of Accounts.

Browse for the file to import.

Select the date on which the opening balances should be posted to accounting.

Click the Upload Chart of Accounts (CSV) button.

Importing accounts receivable and payables (debtors and creditors)

Two additional imports can be done to breakdown your accounts receivable (debtors) and payable (creditors) figures to the relevant customer and vendor accounts. Note that the accounts import cannot be used to import historical transaction details.

Depending on the Tax/VAT scheme you are using you will need to follow different steps to ensure your account balances are properly generated and you account for all tax.

It can be easier to switch between Brightpearl and your previous accounting system at the end of a tax/VAT period, but it is not necessary.

Cash VAT scheme -The debtor and creditor import cannot be used when you are on the cash VAT scheme; it will not account for tax correctly. Manually post each of your outstanding debtors and creditors invoices into Brightpearl using quick invoices and bills. Then journal the VAT amounts from opening debtor & opening creditor nominal codes against sales VAT & purchase VAT nominal codes

How to import accounts receivable / accounts payable

This import will generate the accounting entries to attach the single debtor figure imported from the trial balance to each customer. This will ensure your supplier debt report is correct.

The Accounts Receivable List will need to have the following columns, and in this order:

Customer code

Company

Contact name

Telephone

Type

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)

Inv.Ref

Details

Amount

The Accounts Payable List will need to have the following columns, and in this order:

Vendor code

Company

Contact name

Telephone

type

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)

Inv.Ref

Details

Amount

The customer/vendor code is the unique reference that should match the code as per your main Customer and Vendor imports.

If you choose to create Customers or Vendors at the same time as importing the opening balances, then the details from the file will be used. If you add a unique code in your accounts receivable or payable files, then you can use this same code to update the contact information with more fields later using the Contact Import.

The date format MUST be YYYY-MM-DD.

Each open invoice must have a unique reference number for that contact (you can re-use the same invoice number for multiple customers, or for customers and vendors - but we don't recommend it).

Don't include a currency symbol for the amount; and remember that all imports are in your base currency.

Use these transactions types in the "type" column to define where the transaction is placed in your system.

SI - Sales Invoice

SC - Sales Credit

SR - Sales Receipt, also used for Payment on Account from customers

PI - Purchase Invoice

PC - Purchase Credit

PP - Purchase Payment, also used for Payment on Account to vendors

Go to Settings > Data/Import > Import Accounts.

Click Import accounts payable/creditors.

Browse for the file to import.

Specify whether to add balances and invoices. If you say no you will only import the basic contact data.

Select the date to use for open invoices, or whether to use the date in the file per item.

Click the Upload CSV button.

When it comes to doing your next tax return these transactions will NOT be included and must be manually added onto the Brightpearl VAT return figure. You should run a tax report in your old system.

Importing accounts receivable and payable on the Cash VAT scheme

When you import your trial balance a single figure is posted for the total balance of outstanding debtors and another for total creditors. You will need to manually post your outstanding debtors and creditors to ensure the figure is broken down into the individual invoice amounts and attached to each contact record. This will ensure customer statements and your customer and supplier debt reports are accurate.

You will need to get a list of all the outstanding customer debt and supplier debt from your old system and then post Quick Invoices into Brightpearl. You will need the following data for each invoice (customer and supplier):

Select the correct Tax Code to calculate the Tax and Total values; check these are the same as the original invoice.

Select the nominal code 9997 (Opening Debtor Balance).

Click the Submit button.

Each invoice posted will create a journal to move the net invoice amount from the Debtor Suspense code (9997) to the Debtors Control code (1100) and create a VAT entry in the Sales VAT code (2200).

For each outstanding supplier invoice post a Bill:

Got to Suppliers > Enter a Bill.

Search for the supplier (you should import your contacts first).

Select the invoice date and due date.

Enter the invoice reference.

(Optional) Enter any further details.

Enter the Net Amount.

Select the correct Tax Code to calculate the Tax and Total values; check these are the same as the original invoice.

Select the nominal code 9998 (Opening Creditor Balance).

Click the Submit button.

Each invoice posted will create a journal to move the net invoice amount from the Creditor Suspense code (9998) to the Creditors Control code (2100) and create a VAT entry in the Purchase VAT code (2201).

Since the VAT balances would have been imported as part of the original trial balance, and a VAT figure is also created through the Quick Invoices/Bills, the VAT has been duplicated. However, the remaining balance in the suspense accounts is also that of the VAT! This can therefore can be matched to the duplicated VAT amount to leave your accounts completely balanced and correct.

You will need to find the balance of nominal codes 9997 (Debtors Opening balance) and 9998 (Opening Creditors balance). Go to Accounting > Chart of Accounts and find the balance for each of these accounts. Then enter a manual journal:

Go to Accounting > Enter Journal.

Leave the date as today's date.

Enter details to explain the reason for the journal.

On the first line select the nominal code 9997 (Opening Debtor balance) with a credit for the full amount left in the account.

On the second line select the nominal code 2200 (Sales VAT) with a debit for the same amount.

Use the tax code T9 for both lines.

Click the Save journal button.

Post a second journal with the first line using nominal code 9998 (Opening Creditor balance) with a debit for the full amount left in the account.

On the second line select the nominal code 2201 (Purchase VAT) with a credit for the same amount.

Use the tax code T9 for both lines.

Click the Save journal button.

You accounting should now be correct, leaving you ready to carry on business as usual!